Abstract

The movement of Au catalysts during growth of InAs on GaAsnanowires has been carefully investigated by transmission electron microscopy. It has been found that Au catalysts preferentially stay on GaAs sidewalls. Since a {112} surface is composed of a {111} facet and a {002} facet and since {111} facets are polar facets for the zinc-blende structure, this crystallographic preference is attributed to the different interface energies caused by the different polar facets. We anticipate that these observations will be useful for the design of nanowireheterostructure based devices.

Received 18 November 2008Accepted 16 February 2009Published online 01 April 2009

Acknowledgments:

The Australian Research Council is acknowledged for the financial support of this project. One of the authors (M.P.) acknowledges the support of an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship. The Australian National Fabrication Facility established under the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy is also acknowledged for access to the facilities for this study.